In the related art, proposed is an imaging apparatus such as a digital camera or a digital video camera in which a person's face or hand is detected from an image, the detected face is tracked and focused or predetermined processing is executed in accordance with movement of the detected hand (refer to Patent Document 1, for example).
Such an imaging apparatus includes: an image sensor to image a moving image and output image data; and an image processing unit to apply image recognition processing to the image data from the image sensor. This image processing unit is implemented by hardware including an image signal processor (DSP) and the like, or by a computer executing software.
Generally, in the image recognition processing, a recognition object (human face, hand, or the like) is detected while an entire image output from the image sensor is set as a search range.
Furthermore, in the image recognition processing, in a case of detecting a recognition object on a certain frame on the grounds that the recognition object on a screen is rapidly moved to a distant place, detection for the recognition object is attempted again in next and subsequent frames thereto while only a periphery of a position where the recognition object has been detected in a previous frame is set as the search range of the recognition object. Consequently, the recognition object once detected can be continuously tracked.
Additionally, in the image recognition processing, the entire image is periodically set as the search range so as to be able to detect a fact that a recognition object other than the recognition object already detected enters the screen.